UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor: Investigate the Possibility that Israel is Committing the Crime of Genocide Against the Palestinian People

Late in 1982, the UN General Assembly declared the carnage an act of genocide,condemning Israel in the “strongest terms for the large-scale massacre of Palestinian civilians in the Sabra and Shatila refugee camps.” However, neither the UN nor any other international body ever took action against Israel or its proxies for the massacre.

Undeniably, the views of Ariel, Bennett and Caspit are not angry statements uttered in a moment of rage. They are all reflections of real policies that have been carried out for over 70 years. Indeed, killing, raping and imprisoning for life are features that have accompanied the state of Israel since the very beginning.

This violent legacy continues to define Israel to this day, through the use of what Israeli historian Ilan Pappe describes as “incremental genocide”.

Throughout this long legacy, little has changed except for names and titles. The Zionist militias that orchestrated the genocide of the Palestinians prior to the establishment of Israel in 1948 merged together to form the Israeli army; and the leaders of these groups became Israel’s leaders.

I carry Palestine in my heart, Macedonian poet Pande Manojlov who has written poems expressing his love and affection for Palestinian people told Anadolu Agency. Manojlov, who is also a writer, critic and journalist, said he tries to encourage sensitivity about the Palestinian cause by sharing his poems and writings on social network platforms.

…The suffering of the Palestinian people, who have been subjected to repeated violence of Israeli security forces, has led to calls for ending of their persecution. Worldwide campaigns have been launched to express solidarity with Palestinians.

The poem, which was also translated in Arabic, recalled the tragedy that took place in the Sabra and Shatila Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Until sometime in 1982, a Malaysian woman living in exile in London with her Singaporean husband was all but oblivious to the Palestinian plight.

Penang-born Dr Ang Swee Chai, like many non-Muslims, could not relate to the suffering of the Palestinians owing to the highly charged religious sentiments of their supporters. She grew up supporting Israel.

“My church celebrated when Israel won the Six Day War,” Ang told FMT, referring to the 1967 war that Israel won against Arab forces.

The petite orthopaedic surgeon was in Kuala Lumpur to attend the launching of a new edition of her memoir of the events of September 1982 in Lebanon.

From Beirut to Jerusalem is her eyewitness account as a young volunteer during the Sabra and Shatilla massacre in Lebanon. The killings, blamed on a pro-Israeli Lebanese Christian army, was condemned as an act of genocide by the United Nations General Assembly in December that year.

In its short history, the [International Criminal] Court has dealt with crimes of aggression primarily in some countries in Africa. Despite repeated calls, it has continued to ignore calls for investigations into crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians. It has remained mysteriously silent about the massacres of the residents of Sabra and Shatila and the butchery of civilians in Jenin crafted by Ariel Sharon the Israeli premier at the time, followed by the public display of the genocide of the women and children of Gaza at the behest of the current Israeli premier, Benjamin Netanyahu.

TAKE ACTION now and write a letter to the UN Office of the Special Adviser on the Prevention of Genocide and the International Criminal Court Prosecutor. Make sure to post a copy of the letter in our comments as well, so we can publish it.

In its short history, the ICC has investigated crimes of aggression primarily in some African countries. Despite repeated calls, it has continued to ignore crimes committed by Israelis against Palestinians. It has remained mysteriously silent about the massacres of residents of Sabra and Shatila, the butchery of civilians in Jenin crafted by Ariel Sharon the Israeli premier at the time and the public display of genocide of the women and children of Gaza at the behest of the current Israeli premier, Benjamin Netanyahu… The question then for the ICC is this: When will it hold the Israelis accountable for such continued barbarity?

For Israel’s relentless war on Gaza is no more an act of “self-defense” than such infamous massacres as Wounded Knee (1890), Guernica (1937), the Warsaw Ghetto (1942), Deir Yassin (1948), My Lai (1968), Soweto (1976), Sabra and Shatila (1982), or Lebanon (2006).

Rather, it is but the latest chapter in more than a century of Zionist colonialism, dispossession, ethnic cleaning, racism, and genocide — including Israel’s very establishment through the uprooting and displacement of over 750,000 Palestinians during the 1947-1948 Nakba.